Non-US Music Owners to Get About 73% of Apple Music Revenue, Apple Confirms

Share & comment

Non-US Music Owners to Get About 73% of Apple Music Revenue, Apple Confirms

Share & comment

Music owners from outside the US will get around 73% of Apple Music revenue, while this number drops to 71.5% in the US, iTunes Content vice president Robert Kondrk has confirmed to Re/code. The rate was also confirmed by music labels.

It is worth noting here that Apple offers a three-month trial period, after which it will charge $10 per month for a single membership, and $15 for a family account. During that time, musicians won’t get a dime from Apple.

Apple won’t pay music owners anything for the songs that are streamed during Apple Music’s three-month trial period, a bone of contention with music labels during negotiations for the new service. But Kondrk says Apple’s payouts are a few percentage points higher than the industry standard, in part to account for the lengthy trial period; most paid subscription services offer a free one-month trial.

There is a catch, though: The payment check won’t go directly to musicians, but to the record labels that own the rights to the songs customers stream. As a result, the aforementioned 73% and 71.5% revenue sharing represents what record labels will get. The final payment musicians get depends on their individual contracts with music labels.

Apple will pay music owners a much lower fee for music streamed on Beats 1 and iTunes Radio, as this isn’t music on demand, according to Spotify spokesman Jonathan Prince.